1. Technical Field
The present invention relates, generally, to aircraft cockpit displays and, more particularly, to graphical methods for displaying and editing flight-plan information.
2. Background Information
Aircraft flight displays continue to advance in sophistication, achieving increasingly higher levels of information density and, consequently, presenting a greater amount of visual information to be perceived and understood by the operator. In many applications, it is important that visual displays provide a proper cognitive mapping between what the operator is trying to achieve and the information available to accomplish the task. As a result, such systems increasingly utilize human-factor design principles in order to build instrumentation and controls that work cooperatively with human operators. Accordingly, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has promulgated a number of standards and advisory circulars relating to flight instrumentation. More particularly, Title 14 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 25, Sec. 25.1321 et seq. provides guidelines for arrangement and visibility of instruments, warning lights, indicators, and the like. Similarly, detailed guidelines related to electronic displays can be found in FAA Advisory Circular 20-88A, Guidelines on the Marking of Aircraft Powerplant Instruments (September 1985).
One area in particular that has not profited in advances in graphical user interfaces is the field of aircraft flight management systems. Specifically, in current generation aircraft, flight plan entry and editing continues to be performed using cumbersome, text-based techniques which have not changed significantly in the decade. As a result, flight crews frequently complain that current flight management systems (FMS) are non-intuitive, difficult to interpret, and require too much heads-down time. Indeed, due to the high cockpit workload involved, many flight crews abandon the FMS altogether, choosing instead to fly the aircraft using the autopilot.
Methods are therefore needed in order to overcome these and other limitations of the prior art. Specifically, there is a long felt need for an interface to flight management systems which is intuitive and easy to use.
The present invention provides systems and methods for an integrated graphical user interface which facilitates the display and editing of aircraft flight-plan data. In accordance with various aspects of the present invention, a user (e.g., a pilot) located within the aircraft provides input to a processor through a cursor control device and receives visual feedback via a display produced by a monitor. The display includes various graphical elements associated with the lateral position, vertical position, flight-plan and/or other indicia of the aircraft""s operational state as determined from avionics data and/or various data sources. Through use of the cursor control device, the user may modify the flight-plan and/or other such indicia graphically in accordance with feedback provided by the display. In one embodiment, the display includes a lateral view, a vertical profile view, and a hot-map view configured to simplify the display and editing of the aircraft""s flight-plan data.